Arthur Mitchell
Profile = |-| Killer = Arthur Mitchell is a character in DEXTER introduced in Season 4. He is a serial killer and is possibly the most prolific and successful serial killer in American history. Between the discovery of his killings by Frank Lundy and the discovery of his identity, he was dubbed Trinity or The Trinity Killer due to the original assumption that his kill-cycle involved three murders. It was, however, later discovered by Dexter Morgan to be four (the live burial of a 10-year-old boy at the beginning of each Preview cycle,) although the moniker Trinity continues to be used throughout seasons four and five. It is estimated that Mitchell has killed at least 120 people; almost double Dexter's body count (~65) revealed in season five. Officially, he is fourth main antagonist and the main antagonist for Season 4. He is the second to kill a main character in the series (Rita Morgan), with Lila West being the first (James Doakes). He is played by two-time Oscar nominated veteran actor John Lithgow in his Golden Globe-winning role. Lithgow is mostly best known for playing villains in his film career including Obsession, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Santa Claus: The Movie, Ricochet, Raising Cain, Cliffhanger ''and the recent animated-hit ''Shrek, which made him the perfect candidate to play Mitchell. Appearance Arthur is a man in his early 60s; white-grey thinning hair, blue eyes and considerably large build. Dexter, by his own admission, is very physically fit, however Mitchell was able to subdue Dexter in a choke hold against a wall. When on the job (at the dig sites), he prefers a t-shirt and blue jeans as well as work boots and equipment used for the dig. At school, he wears much more formal attire befitting his occupation as a teacher. This formal attire is also seen when he goes to church. This can include tan colored or grey suits that remain unbuttoned. When he goes out for a kill (at least in the 3rd and fourth victim's case) he'll wear dark clothing and possibly a jumpsuit (for the fourth victim especially) along with a face shield and protective equipment to prevent the blood from splattering on his body. Personality Being 'born in blood' - Dexter Morgan's euphemism for psychological trauma leading to homicidal impulses - coupled with Mitchell's longevity as a killer, his personality is incredibly complex, comprising of various personas and moods which seem to switch at random. Possibly due to his age - thus his increasing lack of humanity, - the boundaries compartmentalising his life are beginning to crumble. This can be seen The Family Man His genuine personality is that of a kind older gentleman that is the family man everyone sees out in public. He does charity digs, an active member of the community that isn't afraid to do what he can to help build houses. In his daily life he goes to church and sings as a preacher, then spends his daytimes at work as a school teacher with the typical attitude attributed there with wanting to help the youth in this world. It is also his role as a school teacher which results in his extra-curricular 'activities' having to take place within school holidays. On the outside with his family, he is seen as a loving and caring father who also is strict as need be. The Abuser An extension of his monster escaping into his personal life, the abuser is a violent part of Arthur that Dexter fears (only in the sense that he doesn't want it to happen to himself). Because Arthur has lost control of his Dark Passenger unlike Dexter, this causes him to pour out his hidden personality constantly through acts of extreme rage. Underneath that personality however is a violent monster who constantly keeps his family (the Mitchell family, not Christine) caged within his personal life. For his wife, she has to do everything he demands and in fear out of something happening to her or her children...she'll obey almost as if she was under mind control (her fear is too great that she could never think to do anything else). For his daughter Becca Mitchell, he keeps her locked up within the house and especially at night with bolts and padlocks to insure she is kept "in" and in a way, keep those that might do something to her "out". Jonah Mitchell is practically a reflection of Arthur's abusive father taking out his frustrations and anger on his son. Arthur having grown up in this environment, had it in turn effect him to the degree that he can't control his anger and will enter a mode of rage whenever Jonah irritates him. Arthur has been known to hit Jonah, choke him, even break his hand...and completely throw out anything of praise for his son as if it didn't matter to himself in the slightest. When it comes to his other daughter, Christine Hill, he treats her in two fashions. When he's happy with her, he'll act like a caring father to a daughter like a "Daddy's Girl" relationship. He'll smile at her, call her beautiful and everything that a daughter would want from her father...however when he's frustrated with her, he'll call her names behind her back and completely shut her out of his life. After hearing news of her death, he enters a deep sorrow until Dexter pushes the emotion on Arthur that forces him to throw her out as a "stupid girl", thus investigating BOTH sides of the way he treats her. The Sorrowful Lone Boy With his original family long since gone in a tragic past, Arthur occassionally slips into the past to remember his sister, mother and father. For his sister, he'll admire young women similar to her and spend a lot of care with her ashes...always spreading them at every kill scene. He'll even "share" a drink with the pot of ashes as if she was sitting in another chair next to him, almost as if they were growing up together. For his mother, he'll often lament the loss of her at such an early age and spend time grieving...especially after killing the third person in the cycle. His father is the most dramatic, having him go to a local bar just to have himself beaten senseless while yelling insults at his attacker. This most likely represents the abuse his own father placed on him...and in turn, the abuse Arthur delivers to Jonah. He is very protective of his sister's ashes and having the pot with them in it destroyed causes him to fly into an immense fit of rage, almost breaking his personality and setting him back on track with the monster inside. The Monster As with most major serial killers, Arthur's "demon" is a large influence on his life. It shines through in his personal life with his family, but outside of this...it takes form in the act of killing multiple people in fours at any given time. The thing about Arthur's dark passenger is that it is as split as Arthur himself, having four different forms: The Child The first personality in the child of the killings, Arthur approaches any given young boy at the age of 10 and typically introduces himself as a police officer. When adopting this fake personality, he pulls it off generally well (including a fake badge) and makes it appear that the child's parents were in a wreck or some other sort of disaster. It's then that he lures them off to his van to abduct them and bring them to a safe place (near a dig site that he'll leave them to die at). For a few days he'll play trains with the children or at least attempt to, constantly calling them by his own name as if he was a child again speaking with himself. He acts very innocent in this light, never once harming the child during this stay and always suggests that they wear a similar set of PJs that he once wore. When the boy finally admits they're ready and allows himself to be called Arthur, he will admit that it's time for them to be set free and he'll drug some ice cream to put them to sleep for a little while. He'll then move the boy to the dig site, filled with cement and bury them alive (though unconscious) thus dying a painless, unknowing death just like his own innocence. The Caring Brother The second personality for a young woman in the killings, Arthur stalks a rather young woman between the ages of 16 and about 24 until he decides it's ready to make his move. He'll break into their house, calmly stalking into their bathroom when they're ready to take a bath or shower. He will subdue them and strip them naked along with himself, moving both of them to the tub and possibly forcing the girl into a sleeper hold to use a razor blade to slit their thigh and force them to bleed out. In the process he'll pull a mirror out to let her look into it while she dies, thus signifying the way his sister looked at him after discovering him watching her shower back then. After he's finished, he'll leave bit traces of ash (left over by his sister) at the scene. Later on he'll take a shower hot enough to burn himself, most likely to wash off the innocence he lost or some other mixed emotion. The Forgotten Son The third personality for a middleaged woman with two children in the killings, Arthur will find a woman matching the age of his mother that is the parent of two others much like himself and his own sister. He will first meet up with the woman faking to be a kind old gentleman either walking a dog or some other mundane task, just to introduce himself to them and learn a little about them. Here he adopts the simple personality that just about anyone can fake, common courtesy and smalltalk. Afterwards he'll drop the act and find a way to get her alone, threatening her as he makes her drive to a tall abandoned building. From here it's all based on his orders and her voluntary choice...that is unless she refuses to comply. As the two of them reach the spot where she's supposed to jump (just like his mother did), he'll urge her to fall back based on her own will. If the woman does not want to, he'll start throwing threats of making her children suffer if she does not follow his orders...to which she'll eventually let herself fall and die. He'll then leave traces of ash here, after feeling an immense flood of emotions hit him. Father vs. Son The fourth personality for a older man with possibly two children in the killings, Arthur will locate a father matching the age of his father. Because not every one of his victims is a drunkard, he'll need to find someone else to take half of the ritual in this kill by taking out their drunken fury on Arthur with multiple punches and kicks while he insults them (much like his own father would do to him back in his past). After that is finished, he'll stalk a man to an area and start yelling insults at them as he bludgens them with some sort of weapon (after a recommendation from a local store owner, it becomes a hammer). During this entire process he's seen as a very vunerable man fighting back against his father, despite the fact that his victim is the one on the defense here. He'll leave trace evidence of ash after he's finished and will start to sink back into reality, without his cycle after this deed is done. The True Arthur Arthur, in all reality, hates the demon withinside him and has lost control of his life because of it. So much that he's been contemplating ways to stop it, to kill the demon...in killing himself. Little to Dexter's knowledge, Arthur had been building his own coffin as of late and wished to end his own life in order to stop the monster...thus a planned trip was made to a dig site where he could jump to his death much like his mother. After finding out more from Dexter, he learns that he killed a man (though Arthur believes it accidental) and thus begins sharing his past...to relay to someone finally about who he truly was from the past, though does not reveal to Dexter personally that he kills people. Arthur changes drastically at this point, becoming almost estatic about his newfound "friend" and goes overboard by becoming too open to try and make families listen to him while meeting plenty of people. In a way, it could be that Dexter was officially Arthur's way of confessing to his sins without actually saying them and now he's happy to be free of them, ready to take his own life. Later on as Dexter prepares to take Trinity's life, he instead watches as Arthur tries to jump off a building and Dexter ends up saving his life unintentionally just so that he can have him on his table. Arthur then begins to act as if new life has been breathed into him and praises Dexter...having believed God saved his life. But it's soon revealed that Arthur has returned to his previous personality, no longer wanting to end his own life but continue his killing ways... The true Arthur only comes out when Dexter (first playing as Kyle Butler) finds out just how far Arthur will go in his act of violence. After a mishap involving Dexter almost killing Arthur in his own home, Arthur forces his next cycle to begin early...thus kidnapping a child for his next kill. During this time, the two play cat and mouse with Dexter trying to find him while Arthur dangles the boy's life at the end of a thread without revealing anything about his process. When Dexter finally figures it out as well as the location of where the boy would die, the two confront one another and it leads Arthur to an escape...from here on moving onto the hunt. When on the hunt for who Dexter really is, he is shown to be a cold and calculating man that will use bait to find out what he needs. He does however talk in a more relaxed, almost cheery voice as if he's enjoying this game. In due time he finally figures out where Dexter works and meets him face to face in the Homicide department...a true stareoff occuring between the two. After a threat here and there, Dexter tails him to a garage and attempts to set him up for his own Ritual...however fails when caught up in an ordeal with some sheriffs. As Dexter returns to the van where he left an unconsious Arthur, he finds nothing but an empty space where he once was. Arthur takes pride in the vehicle he possesses, becoming highly infuriated with Jonah for damaging it beforehand. After taking the windshield clean off, he gets it fixed and painted up nicely. Of course during this time he acted out his revenge on Dexter for not only stopping his cycle but also attempting to kill him earlier. In a break of the cycle that was technically still apart of the normal order (even though the boy survived, he moved on to the woman in the bathtub however he instead combined that kill with the third kill of a older woman with two children), he goes to Rita's house and sets her up for a kill just like his second in order...slashing her thigh and allowing her to bleed out within a bathtub. This proves that in a fit of rage with his passenger, he needed to leave something behind to show Dexter punishment after his attempted escape from Miami. After killing Rita and feeling accomplished, Arthur picks up his vehicle and drives off with a smile on his face...truly feeling like he was getting away with murder for the first time rather than just trying to please his dark passenger that always called to him. However, Dexter rigged the car to give out and later takes him into a Ritual. It is here that Arthur expresses everything that is true about him...he shows that he never took pride in his killings but only had to because he couldn't control his dark passenger. He craved to be free of it, to be stopped without trying...and then laments that it finally worked because Dexter was the one to stop him. He begins to show remorse for his victims and only wishes to be set free as he accepts God's will in all of this. He then goes on to say "It's Already Over", which baffles Dexter and he repeats it once more...most likely meaning that he was telling Dexter in a symbolic way that he killed Rita. He goes on to notice the train set and record player, asking in his final moments if he may hear his train and music play before he gets killed...thus suggesting a return to his innocence once more and wanting to die in peace. Other Notes on Personality Arthur is very prone to switching instantly between his multiple personalities. As quoted by Dexter himself "Yesterday he was jumping down my throat, today he's the happy dancing man....is that mask of his crumbling?". Arthur is very defensive to being called a pedophile, most likely because he in a way cares for children because of their innocence and would never dream of such a sick thing to do to one. Arthur has a hard time accepting what he truly is and being faced with the option to kill something (such as a deer), he cowards away as if he has never picked up a weapon before. This could suggest a crack in the already unstable persona he lives with, further proving that he never took pride in his kills. History Arthur Mitchell was born in Tampa Bay, Florida and lived in a two story blue house for most of his young life. He grew up just like any other boy would, that is until one day in 1959 when he became curious of his sister while she was taking a shower (at the age of 10, it was a very innocent thing) and he stood in the doorway, watching her through the mirror. When his sister noticed him, she suddenly freaked and slipped, breaking the glass on the shower door which forced a shard to slash her leg open and make her bleed out there in front of him. This graphic scene of violence scarred Arthur emotionally forever and came as a hard blow to the family as a whole. For a year after the incident, his mother, Marsha, grew increasingly depressed, culminating in her suicide by jumping off of a bridge in 1960. His father, Henry, became a drinker and was a physically abusive to Arthur, blaming him for the deaths of Vera and Marsha; frequently calling him a pervert who killed them. In 1964, Henry was found bludgeoned to death in an alley (it is presumed that Arthur himself, who would have been 14 or 15 at the time, was the killer). However, the emotional and physical abuse that Arthur suffered at the hands of his family furthered his path down the wrong way of accepting his passenger. Arthur would continue to grow up, eventually entering college It is possible he went to Schaffer High School (the same highschool his sister attended during her high school career) along the way. What happened to him after his father's death is not revealed. It's possible that he had some other relatives who took him in, or that he was somehow emancipated. After graduating college with a teaching degree, he'd later become a teacher here in his hometown and would meet Christine Hill's mother, Lorraine Hill, later conceiving his first daughter. Arthur would eventually enter the organization known as Four Walls, One Heart and would use this as his alibi when starting his kill cycles. One night his daughter Christine actually witnessed the death of one of Arthur's victims, some 30 years before (the one in the same house that was featured in the first episode of the fourth season) though she never said anything about it out of the love for her father. Arthur would go on multiple trips, sending home multiple postcards saying "Wish you were here. Love, Daddy". Arthur's relationship with Lorraine ended (he would later tell Dexter that it was because of his habit of pushing people away because of his past) and he and Christine became estranged, only meeting around holidays and her birthday. At some point in time, FBI Agent Frank Lundy would catch onto the pattern of what he began to dub the "Trinity Killer", though Arthur was most likely ignorant to the knowledge that someone had figured out his pattern and finally connected each killing. Lundy would effectively chase a "ghost" all the way across the country without ever figuring out who he was until it was too late. Some 20 years before the current storyline, Arthur would meet his future wife Sally Mitchell and conceive two children, Jonah Mitchell and Becca Mitchell. He would continue to raise this family as well as stay on as a longterm teacher with a local high school while committing to various other activities. His newfound family life also estranged him even further from Christine, of whose existence they presumably remained unaware. Behind closed doors he would keep his daughter imprisoned and abuse his son and wife when he was in terrible moods and then treat them nicely when he was in a good mood. When his time for another cycle began, he would go to a dig with the Four Walls organization and kill a boy before the dig actually started, along with the three other victims. Plot Prior to the events of Season 4, Arthur was in symbolic meaning mentioned by Frank Lundy as his biggest game to try and catch. During this time it assumed he killed at least 12 people, maybe more (this includes the children involved). Season 4 Arthur Mitchell is a middle-aged serial killer who has been active for three decades without being noticed. Agent Frank Lundy, the FBI's lead investigator of his crimes, has dubbed him "The Trinity Killer" because it was believed that he killed in threes. However it has since come to light that he in actuality kills four victims every cycle (Lost Boys). His M.O. is to kill a series of four people in a very specific fashion. The first victim is a young boy, usually around the age of 10, whom he forces to wear pajamas then buries him alive in wet concrete. The second victim is a young woman whom he holds down in a bathtub, cuts the femoral artery and uses a mirror to watch die from bleeding out. The third victim is a mother of 2 kids whom he uses threats to her family to convince to jump off a building to her death. The fourth victim is anolder man, also a parent of two children, whom he bludgeons with a hammer. He's immaculate, always careful never to leave any trace of his presence at the scenes of his crimes aside from the trademark ash smudge he leaves his victims pointing to. Through his killings, he's recreating the traumatic deaths of his own family members (If I Had a Hammer). He performs this cycle roughly once or twice every year, during school breaks. His first cycle took place in Miami. 30 years later (''Living The Dream''), he returned to the exact same locations and killed there again. In Road Kill, Arthur revealed his back story to Dexter. When he was 10, in 1959, he walked in on his sister, Vera, showering. When she saw him and panicked, she slipped and smashed the shower doors' glass, her femoral artery being slashed in the process. His mother, Marsha, then became very depressed and killed herself the following year by jumping off a roof. His father, Henry, started drinking heavily, became more abusive and beat Arthur as a result of these deaths, blaming him for them. He too was killed in 1964 when he was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in an alley (Dexter theorizes that Arthur himself was the killer. He would have been 15 at the time). The first victims of the cycles, the young boy dressed in a pyjamas and placed in wet concrete, is supposed to symbolize Arthur himself on the night of Vera's death, his last moment of innocence. Despite Arthur's serial killing, he still manages to maintain a family life with his wife, Sally, and two children, Jonah and Becca, who he genuinely loves. He works as a high school teacher and is also a deacon and the leader of Four Walls, One Heart, a charitable Christian home-building organization, which he uses as a cover for his travels throughout the country. He keeps his home-building plaques as trophies for his killings. It was, however, revealed in Hungry Man that Arthur is extremely controlling, domineering and even verbally and physically abusive, his family keeping up the facade of a happy suburban family. He also has an adult daughter, Christine Hill, from a past relationship. In Dex Takes a Holiday, she shot Debra and Lundy, killing him, in order to protect Arthur; when she was five, she had witnessed him performing one of his bathtub murders. It was initially believed by some that Arthur had been the shooter and by some that Nikki Reed, one of the Vacation Murderers, did it. Eventually, Christine was caught and killed herself after confessing. In the season 4 finale, The Getaway, Dexter finally abducts and kills Arthur, who sees it as divine intervention to stop him. When Arthur learns of Christine's suicide, he is initially upset, but then claims she did it because she was weak. Dexter turns on a toy train and a record of Venus by Frankie Avalon, which Arthur sings to, and kills him with the sharp edge of a hammer, just as Arthur had done with the final victims of his cycles. After cleaning up, however, he finds that Arthur had already killed Rita in her own bathtub before being abducted by Dexter. Arthur Mitchell has killed roughly around 240 people over the past 30 years. Cycle of Kills Due to his life as a school teacher, Arthur Mitchell's cycle always takes place within the school holidays. In Season 4, we see Arthur carry out his cycle in the December break. The cycle is as follows: *The 10 year old boy represents Arthur before he saw his sister die. Placing the boy in wet concrete, preserving it inside, is Arthur's way of symbolically preserving his own innocence from his life before the incident. *The woman bleeding out in the tub represents Arthur's sister, who was accidentally killed when she was startled by Arthur in the shower. She fell, broke the shower door, and bled out right in front of Arthur. *The woman jumping from the building represents the suicide of his mother. Arthur is extremely particular about making them jump themselves rather than him pushing them. *The final kill represents the death of his father, who was killed in an alleyway with a hammer. They are arguably Arthur's most violent and sadistic kill in the cycle because of his deep hatred for his own father, who abused him. Victims *Lisa Bell *Tarla Grant Other Victims The following victims are the few kills that Arthur has made outside of his kill cycle. *Henry Mitchell - Arthur's father. Though it is never confirmed, it is possible, due to the things he shouts at his later bludgeon victims. It is possible that Henry was Arthur's first kill, prior to the cycle. * Kyle Butler - Another bludgeon victim, that he killed trying to find Dexter. This one was done before he had began his cycle, though he had attempted to do so before. * Rita Morgan - A bathtub victim. She is considered outside of his cycle for two reasons: He had yet to succeed in burying a young boy in cement, and she didn't fit the normal characteristics of his bathtub victims. Notes * Arthur was originally named Walter Simmons. * Arthur's wife's name is Sally, which was John Lithgow's character, Dick Solomons', sister's name in 3rd Rock from the Sun * It's interesting note that Arthur has killed Rita, as both John Lithgow (Arthur) and Julie Benz (Rita) have each appeared in Sylvester Stallone's movies. Lithgow played the main antagonist in Cliffhanger, while Benz appeared in Rambo, playing a damsel in distress. * Interestingly, Arthur is the first main antagonist to be dismembered and thrown into the ocean by Dexter. Brian Moser was left out to be found by the police, Lila West was zipped up in a bag (though it is not known how she was disposed of), Miguel Prado was thrown out to be found by the police, and Jorge Orozco was thrown onto a moving police car. es:Trinity Killer Category:Characters Category:Characters killed by Dexter Category:Season 4 characters Category:Serial killers Category:Main antagonists Category:Deceased Category:Characters seen in Flashbacks